Madness
by Birgit Riddle
Summary: Jonathan has knows he's a bit mad. He's been like that for a while—just not openly.


He knew that he was mad; he had known it since senior high school. Of course no one who had another person in their head could ever be called fully sane, but Jonathan Crane preferred it that way. His constant companion was, after all, much better company than most, even if it was a bit insane.

It started innocently enough as the imaginary friend of young Jonathan and it shared the child's first name at that time, but as Jonathan grew up, his friend did not disappear like most such friends. In junior high, Jonathan renamed his friend "Shadow" after he had read about Jungian archetypes and this friend now became the only person that Jonathan confided in.

Then senior high came.

----

Jonathan lay on the fallow field, staring at the dark and cloudy sky, and he was only lying there because he hurt all over from the beating he had just received. The bullying had become worse since the school year began and now they were daring enough to leave physical evidence of it. This time, Jonathan's glasses had been knocked off and a black eye was starting form as well as other bruises. His clothing was covered in dust and dirt; his nice shirt possibly ruined.

"And I suppose they had to drag me out to this godforsaken field to beat me up because they had nothing better to do," said Jonathan dryly to what seemed to be no one. However, Jonathan knew better and looked up to his left to look at the figure sitting next to him. This figure could only be seen by him and it was the mirror image of Jonathan himself except for the fact that the figure had a sort of wild look about it and wore clothing that was not as well kept as Jonathan's usually was.

"You really need to fight them more," said the doppelganger as he peered at Jonathan.

"These guys lift weights in their spare time, Shadow. It's pointless to fight them." Jonathan groaned as he sat up and looked around for his glasses.

"Don't call me Shadow. I prefer Scarecrow," said the figure, "Oh and your glasses are over there. I think they broke them. Oh yeah and I think they took your bag too."

"Scarecrow is what those bullies call me…" Jonathan's voice trailed off as he looked in the general direction that Scarecrow pointed to and he swore. His companion was right: his glasses were broken.

Thankfully, his eyesight was not as bad as to make it impossible for him to function and he could make it home without incident. However, what he dreaded was what would happen when his grandmother discovered that he had broken his glasses again. Sighing, he got up and picked up his glasses, inspecting the damage. Annoyingly enough, both of the lenses were broken and the frame was bent and so it would have to be completely replaced.

Jonathan sighed and looked up at the sky. Then, to his companion, he said, "Come on, it's going to rain soon and I don't want to catch hell for getting all wet as well." As soon as he finished speaking, drops of rain started to fall, scattered at first.

"Oh _shit_," said Jonathan and he started to run, hoping to get to some shelter before the heavy rain started to fall. Since he was still fairly close to his bus stop, he ran for it because the house that it was in front of had a porch and the owner let children stand under it when it rained. He did not make it in time however, and arrived there soaking wet.

Scarecrow was there before Jonathan arrived and the rain had gone through Scarecrow and so he was not wet like Jonathan. As Jonathan ran up onto the old, wooden porch, Scarecrow said, "Looks like the old man isn't home," and sat on the front railing. Jonathan ignored him and sat down to wait out the rain as he caught his breath.

"You know what would be a good idea?" said Scarecrow to Jonathan, who continued to ignore his companion. After several minutes of nothing but the sound of rain and the cracking of thunder, Scarecrow spoke again. "We should really teach them a lesson. Yes they're stronger in body than you, but you're stronger than them in mind! While they're struggling to keep high enough grades to stay on the football team, you're getting A's!"

Jonathan turned to Scarecrow and just shook his head before saying, "And what exactly do you propose to do? As you know, they don't respect the mind, only their own brute strength. It's not as if I can scare them into leaving me alone, there's not a single thing frightening about me."

"Well, maybe we _should_ scare them!" said Scarecrow and he laughed in a way that bothered Jonathan, but not enough to put him off of the idea.

"Perhaps I should…," said Jonathan softly, "But how could anyone scare them?"

"Everyone has their fears; you just have to find what they are." Scarecrow smirked and got off the railing and sat in front of Jonathan.

"Besides, they call you and I Scarecrow and perhaps we should show them that we can scare more than just crows."

----

Together Jonathan and Scarecrow _did_ eventually scare one of the football players—enough that he crashed his car. No one really knew what caused the car crash; most people assumed that it was a DUI accident as it was right after the senior high prom, but Jonathan knew the truth and became fascinated with the power that fear could have over another.

Scarecrow continued to live in his mind as he proceeded through his undergraduate and graduate studies, but cracks started to form in Jonathan as well. The combination of university stress and his childhood made life hard for him, especially as he was a naturally reclusive person and with no one else to turn to, he increasingly confided all of his stress and anger to Scarecrow.

It became even worse as Jonathan had difficulty obtaining a job teaching at a university and instead settled on taking a little wanted job as a psychiatrist at Arkham Asylum, adding more stress to his life. His stress became especially worse when he took a job offered by a man who wanted him to synthesize a fear "toxin" out of flowers. All of the hiding, bribes and mob bosses who didn't know how to keep to their own business made his life uncomfortable. Only the fact that he had power over people who would normally dominate him outside of the asylum made any of the stress worth it and did that little to alleviate his stress because even his fear toxin experiments had to be hidden.

So Jonathan became a walking time bomb; it was only a matter of time before he snapped.

----

It took the fear toxin that Jonathan created himself to make him lose it.

The outward mask, the Jonathan Crane that showed his face to the world, fell apart and in his place, Scarecrow, the hurt and angry Jonathan, came to the forefront. Scarecrow and Jonathan previously worked together on the fear toxin, but Jonathan had to bear all of the stress as he always had and could not hold his own self together anymore.

So Jonathan Crane descended into madness and lost himself until the fear toxin wore off. After, he picked up the pieces, but he would always be on the edge of losing it because what he had pushed down festered there for too long. Also, he simply liked having Scarecrow around too much because it gave him someone to talk to.


End file.
